Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm just curious as to how many people use a water feature (false bottom or otherwise) it their tanks and how many use straight soil? Could all who reply please give*:

1) water feature vs. soil
2) what species is kept in the tank

* feel free to list all your frog tanks, I know it is hard to keep just one.

I have a water feature in an azureus tank, but I’m thinking I’ll make my next tank with a complete soil base.

I think it is all a matter of personal opinion. I like the water feature, or gravel with moss option. I can say my first tank I used Jungle Mix soil, and it has held up great, but I do not know if I will use soil again. I might use some leaf litter over gravel, but not sure about soil.

Here are mine:
Leuc:
- gravel
- Jungle Mix ontop (no water feature other than a small store bought pound thing)

Azureus:
- Gravel
- Moss
- Water fall over a rock

imitators:
- gravel
- moss
- water fall down the cork background.

Here are my findings and by no means anything other than my opinion:
1. Water feature helps keep the humidty high, and look nice, but it is not needed as long as some water for them to soak in is around.
2. Soil seems to stick to the frogs, though at least for my leucs does not seem to bother them that much.
3. Gravel can be very heavy and other lighter things may work better.

I plan to try some new ideas in the future. You can see all of my tanks on my site below. Some have changed a little, but nothing major. I plan to change most of the plants in my imitator tank very soon, but still looking for enough light to add the broms I want to.
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Kyle
www.kylesphotos.com
Dart Links - still a work in progress
1.2.0 D. leucomelas
1.1.0 D. azureus
1.0.1 D. imitators

I have 7 tanks for now - 6 are 10 gallons and 1 is a 45 gallon. All have basically the same false bottom setups but I have tried different substrates in them. Best plant growth seems to come from a 50/50 mix of Ecoearth and organic potting soil. I use a layer of charcoal and a layer of riverstone first. I use various types of mosses for ground cover in all my tanks so there is no exposed dirt. In the tanks I have 4 leucs (in 2 tanks), 2 azureus, 3 auratus, a powder blue tinc, also 3 painted and 3 bastimentos mantellas.

All of my tanks are gravel substrate with sphagnum moss covering it. I have planted all of my plants directly in the gravel, other than epiphytes of course, with no problems. Here is a list of tanks with species lists.

D. auratus blue (10 gallon, gravel, heavily planted)
D. auratus spotted ((3) 10 gallons, gravel, 1 heavily planted, 2 moderately planted)
D. auratus kahlua and creme (10 gallon, gravel, moderately planted)
D. azureus (10 gallon breeding tank, moderately planted)
D. bicolor yellow with black legs (10 gallon, gravel, moderately planted)
D. bicolor orange with green legs, D. azureus (all are sub adults/adults) 54 gallon hex, gravel, large piece of driftwood, waterfall, pond, heavily planted)
D. bicolor newly morphed (insect cup with damp sphagnum moss and a pothos leaf) He is the smallest neonate I have ever seen. He was found in a friends tank just wandering around. He must have been missed when collecting eggs and tads and just matured in the tank. He is maybe 3/16 of an inch long now. He was closer to 1/8 of an inch if not a little smaller when he was given to me. I have a ton of springtale cultures, so I had plenty of food for him. Hopfully we can get him up to size in the next couple months so that I can move him into something a little larger. Right now I think a fruit fly would try to eat him.
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1.1.3 D. azureus
0.0.8 P. bicolor
0.0.7 D. auratus (polka-dot)
0.0.3 D. auratus (blue)
0.0.3 D. auratus (kahlua and cream)

Shannon